Chapter 21: We Thought They Were Gone, But We Were Mistaken...

I ran as fast as I could down the hall, screaming as loud as I could. I gasped for breath, and forced myself to look at what was following me. My eyes widened in shock as I saw the large wave of Heartless scattering down the hallway after me. I made myself sprint faster, knowing that I couldn't take ALL of them out by myself. Finally, after all my screaming, someone opened the door to see what was going on. It was a female voice that spoke, "Cloud? What's going on?"

It was Tifa. As I ran down the hall towards her, I just grabbed her wrist and continued running, Tifa stumbling slightly behind me. She was wearing a black fighting outfit, and asked angrily, "Why are you dragging me like this?!"
I growled and answered back in a slightly aggravated voice, "Why don't you look BEHIND you!?"

And she did, only to have her eyes widen in shock as they fell upon the large numbers of heartless that were making their way down the hallway. She then stared back at me, and pointed at them, her mouth hanging open in shock. I didn't give her a chance to speak, and said simply, "Now that I have you understand the situation, this is the part where you help me SCREAM!"

Tifa merely nodded, and began to run faster, as we screamed at the same time, "HEARTLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESS!"

Now that we had two very loud voices screaming, everyone in the castle finally came down to where Tifa and I were (the first floor), only to see the large mass of Heartless coming. As we met up with Leon, Yuffie, Cid, and Merlin, we ran past the shocked gang of people, and yelled, "RUN, YOU IDIOTS!"

And they followed our advice. I knew that if we fought now, we'd be able to keep the large group at bay at the castle, but first I needed to tell the group of screaming people that. I swerved around and stopped, making the group stop as well. I stared at them and said seriously, "We have to keep them at bay here. If we do that the town will be safe..."

I was soon interrupted by Cid, who said, "YOU GOTTA BE JOKIN', CLOUD! HOW CAN WE FIGHT DAT MANY HEARTLESS!"

I glared at him, but before I said anything, Yuffie was at my side yelling, "We're the Hollow bastion Restoration Committee! WE'LL FIND A WAY! NOW LET'S KICK SOME HEARTLESS BUTT!"

She smiled at me, and I nodded back at her as if to say, Thanks...

I slowly pulled out my sword, the Heartless coming closer. I then said one final sentence to the group, "Let's do this for Aerith..."

And with that I leapt at the group of Heartless, bringing my sword down on them. The Heartless began to scatter into groups, trying to climb up the walls and into the town. But we wouldn't give them the chance to repeat the disaster from six years ago. Tifa used her martial arts to knock them down from the wall, and I heard grunt as one scratched her arm. Cid threw her a potion, while stabbing Heartless with his spear. Leon was battling next to me, both of us yelling as we sliced the Heartless in half, three at a time. Yuffie threw her shuriken around, disappearing from sight before the Heartless could attack her. Merlin used his magic to take care of the Heartless, getting rid of them in bunches. We fought for what seemed like hours, but more Heartless just kept on coming. We were all back to back now, and Yuffie was wheezing as she said, "Cloud, this isn't working! We need to get out of here!"

I glanced back at her, and replied, "But if we leave now, they'll use the bridge to get into the town. We can't leave..."

Leon responded to my comment with a nervous tone in his voice, "But if we stay, we die..."

I growled and said, "Then you go, but I'm staying here! I won't run away like last time! They won't destroy anymore homes!"

Tifa soon remarked in a worried voice, "Cloud, that's SUICIDE! You can't beat them on your own!"

Cid continued with Tifa, "AND WE DON'T NEED TO BURY ANOTHER PERSON THIS MONTH, DAMNIT!"

I cut a Heartless down and looked away from the group sadly. I knew they were right. Everyone was already sad enough after losing Aerith; they didn't deserve to go through another loss like that. Plus I knew that if Aerith was here she'd be saying the same thing. I was just about to tell them to retreat, when Merlin said, "I can do something. I'll use my magic to destroy the castle, thus making them fall into a ditch below, and the transport us out of here! Now, watch a true mage at work."

And with that, Merlin lifted himself up into the air, and screamed, "EXPLOSION!"

And, you could pretty much guess what happens after that. There was a huge explosion that destroyed the ground beneath us. The group and I began to fall down the ditch with the Heartless, but were soon caught inside a large bubble and were brought to land safely. The Heartless let out a scream of anger as we watched them fall down into the ditch. Merlin soon landed next to us, holding his staff close to him. And as we all stared into the now pitch black ditch, Merlin's wise voice was heard through the silence, saying, "I had believed the only remnants of darkness that was left in the world was Sephiroth, and that the rest was over and done with. But now I see that I was truly mistaken..."